Monday, July 31, 2006
I'M A MILLONAIRE!!!
I checked my bank account the other day and thought "hey I could retire now and not have to work for money EVER again!" then I realized it wasn't in US$, it was all in worthless Rupiah, stupid worthless money......
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Bored to petrification
Wow, this must be the lowest point in human excitement, in fact excitement or productive activity equates to practically minus infinity at this point. I never imagined that you can actually go to work and near nothing to do, I've posted at least 4 blogs by about now since about 7am, my thumbs have been fiddled to a point where it went to auto-fiddle for a moment I've done practically almost everything I can think of in an office environment including attaching any loose paper clips I found lying around, all files have been sorted and re-sorted, all sendable document have been sent and I'm done searching for strangely related things in wikipedia.
I bet a stone statue would have more fun than this.
I bet a stone statue would have more fun than this.
When planing to start a new non democratic country
1. Make sure you have nuclear weapons, don't just plan on having it.
2. Try to make your country the a central port for the region.
3. When holding a pro democratic activist prisoner make sure you have a stable economy.
4. Your country must be the worlds centre for manufacturing and cheap labor.
5. Have one of the best public health system.
and last but not least
6. A strong (or seemingly strong) Military
There are other points but basically these are the 6 major points if you don't want to be screwed over/invaded/harrased by hegemonic states.
2. Try to make your country the a central port for the region.
3. When holding a pro democratic activist prisoner make sure you have a stable economy.
4. Your country must be the worlds centre for manufacturing and cheap labor.
5. Have one of the best public health system.
and last but not least
6. A strong (or seemingly strong) Military
There are other points but basically these are the 6 major points if you don't want to be screwed over/invaded/harrased by hegemonic states.
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Hello emo*
Wow that was a close match, just when I thought Captain Rational was loosing too bad the match was inconclusive, Mr. Indifference stepped in and everything just stopped.
Oh well, I guess it's back to life as usual for me.
*From motorola's "Hello Moto"
Oh well, I guess it's back to life as usual for me.
*From motorola's "Hello Moto"
Monday, July 24, 2006
Damn leapforg....
This blog is now 365 days old.....or was it 364.....how many days were there in last February again?
Saturday, July 22, 2006
hmm......
Something strange happened today........
Time for Captain Rational and Emotion Man to do battle once again!!
So far the score has been 382629324-510, respectively.
Time for Captain Rational and Emotion Man to do battle once again!!
So far the score has been 382629324-510, respectively.
Friday, July 14, 2006
Cross postage
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO... (continued here)
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO... (continued here)
Monday, July 10, 2006
Long post 2: the rant returns
ah....there we go I think I just shat a whole essay, now let me just pick out the relevant crap.
More frequently and more obvious however was media bias on their favored/unfavored policies, slander became a common term when describing news interviews no matter which side you're on, it's even more depressing that the networks doesn't even hide the fact that they take sides.
Watching the Iraqi war coverage on multiple news channels was a fun activity, you have BBC international reporting with a flat, monotonous, unexciting yet gave nothing but reports, CNN international tried to be a little more neutral than their local American version by having less opinionated interviews and only giving out some reports and figures, the local Australian networks doesn't seem to care until an Australian soldier shot himself on the leg or got killed by friendly fire, then there was the Fox, it hardly featured the torture of "enemy combatants" done by the Americans, all I heard from them was "go go go!! serves those towel heads right", that apparently was the American version of journalistic professionalism.
The print media wasn't doing any better it was all left or right but since 990% of the print media was owned by the same bunch of old bastards who owned the rest of the news network I wasn't surprised. News articles talking about the evils of gay marriages, spotlighting stereotype muslim terrorist, pointing out the possibilities of small no name towns becomes a target for terrorist attacks and the evils of video games. Journalism now is disastrous, speaking of disasters....
Not long after the whole US "election", Iraqi war and all that sort became an everyday news a small tremor in the base of the Indian Ocean caused the destruction of entire cities and death of more than half a million people in Indonesia and a significant number in neighboring (and not so neighboring) areas. I can't forget the date it was the 26th of December, it was boxing day, while people I know were boxing their presents these people were boxing their relatives. On the spot reports came in a matter of minutes from local and international news networks, it was probably the biggest natural disaster in this decade, almost every major news network were there to cover it, almost, someone was missing and when they reported it was only snippets, not even a major interview. Sometime after, a sweet little whirlwind called Katrina (or as I like to call it Katty) came down to New Orleans to play some music, and play she did. Just when you think you can't go wrong with reporting natural disasters the media managed to make this a political issue, especially after that "Bush hates black people" comment. On one side of the news the reports were all about how fast the US government reacted and praising the efforts and speed of federal emergency workers in handling the situation, on the other side as always was the ugly fact.
The main thing is if the media isn't too busy chucking shit at each other they're busy scaring the readers and audiences and this isn't just in western media, in fact local Indonesian news are doing it much worse than the Americans when it comes to scare tactics, most people I know here have become desensitized by it but they keep on watching, the Japanese media aren't any different either, but at least scaring people with things that happened can still be counted as news rather than reporting on opinions, and yes I'm more than aware that opinions may be helpful or may give further insight to a situation but repeating the same opinions every day looks way too much like a propagation of an ideology.
To me objectivity in the media died, it died when the media owners thought they should do more than report the news, it died when these people decided to play a dangerously addictive game called politics. I don't expect a happy news every time I switched on my TV, in fact I'd rather not see "happy news" everyday because we all know when that happens something is wrong with the media, when I watch or read news I want to know what happened and why it happened from a neutral angle but that's probably as likely seeing ex-dictator Suharto arrested, tried and sentenced to cleaning mall toilets for life.
More frequently and more obvious however was media bias on their favored/unfavored policies, slander became a common term when describing news interviews no matter which side you're on, it's even more depressing that the networks doesn't even hide the fact that they take sides.
Watching the Iraqi war coverage on multiple news channels was a fun activity, you have BBC international reporting with a flat, monotonous, unexciting yet gave nothing but reports, CNN international tried to be a little more neutral than their local American version by having less opinionated interviews and only giving out some reports and figures, the local Australian networks doesn't seem to care until an Australian soldier shot himself on the leg or got killed by friendly fire, then there was the Fox, it hardly featured the torture of "enemy combatants" done by the Americans, all I heard from them was "go go go!! serves those towel heads right", that apparently was the American version of journalistic professionalism.
The print media wasn't doing any better it was all left or right but since 990% of the print media was owned by the same bunch of old bastards who owned the rest of the news network I wasn't surprised. News articles talking about the evils of gay marriages, spotlighting stereotype muslim terrorist, pointing out the possibilities of small no name towns becomes a target for terrorist attacks and the evils of video games. Journalism now is disastrous, speaking of disasters....
Not long after the whole US "election", Iraqi war and all that sort became an everyday news a small tremor in the base of the Indian Ocean caused the destruction of entire cities and death of more than half a million people in Indonesia and a significant number in neighboring (and not so neighboring) areas. I can't forget the date it was the 26th of December, it was boxing day, while people I know were boxing their presents these people were boxing their relatives. On the spot reports came in a matter of minutes from local and international news networks, it was probably the biggest natural disaster in this decade, almost every major news network were there to cover it, almost, someone was missing and when they reported it was only snippets, not even a major interview. Sometime after, a sweet little whirlwind called Katrina (or as I like to call it Katty) came down to New Orleans to play some music, and play she did. Just when you think you can't go wrong with reporting natural disasters the media managed to make this a political issue, especially after that "Bush hates black people" comment. On one side of the news the reports were all about how fast the US government reacted and praising the efforts and speed of federal emergency workers in handling the situation, on the other side as always was the ugly fact.
The main thing is if the media isn't too busy chucking shit at each other they're busy scaring the readers and audiences and this isn't just in western media, in fact local Indonesian news are doing it much worse than the Americans when it comes to scare tactics, most people I know here have become desensitized by it but they keep on watching, the Japanese media aren't any different either, but at least scaring people with things that happened can still be counted as news rather than reporting on opinions, and yes I'm more than aware that opinions may be helpful or may give further insight to a situation but repeating the same opinions every day looks way too much like a propagation of an ideology.
To me objectivity in the media died, it died when the media owners thought they should do more than report the news, it died when these people decided to play a dangerously addictive game called politics. I don't expect a happy news every time I switched on my TV, in fact I'd rather not see "happy news" everyday because we all know when that happens something is wrong with the media, when I watch or read news I want to know what happened and why it happened from a neutral angle but that's probably as likely seeing ex-dictator Suharto arrested, tried and sentenced to cleaning mall toilets for life.
Sunday, July 09, 2006
Looooooong post
Before I begin I have to say that I have done no research whatsoever with regards to the history of news and journalism, views expressed bellow are of my own personal view of how news are being presented, O.K, now that's out of the way let's begin.
Much like almost everyone else I never found the news to be exciting, on television it was nothing but one or two people speaking monotonously with a video montage while on the papers it was nothing but a bunch of words with some pictures on it, it's no wonder that most people don't like following the news it's boring. It was not until junior high I find myself being drawn to these texts and pictures and not because they changed how it was presented, although it did help make the news more palatable, I was actually drawn to the news, I started to read more newspapers and magazines, particularly 'Time' and 'The Jakarta Post' (local newspapers gave me headaches) when I moved to Singapore to do my O-levels I was almost always the first person in the dormitory to wake up to read the morning papers before it was shredded to pieces by some ignorant kids who had no respect for other people who wants to read the papers. There I expanded my sources, I read the local Strait Times, Newsweek, I even read USA Today, Ok I admit they weren't the best news source bit it gave me different perspectives about the world and particularly about people, right then I had an idea what field of study I wanted to do.
Several years later I sat down in one of my lectures listening to my lecturers explaining about the media control and sociological effect of the media, coming from a place where media were practically state run it didn't come to me as a surprise that propaganda is prominent in ANY country, whether it was state "sponsored" or driven by a bunch of rich old bastards with an agenda. What caught me was the idea of smear campaign, before I became a university student I pretty much took what ever was on the news as fact, with a grain of salt, by the time I finished my 1st year I realized that it was more than just a grain, the salt came in by the truckload, there were so much salt in the news finding facts in the news was like looking for a needle in truckload of salt, there probably was a point where I thought "a cat was rescued by firefighters from a tree" meant something completely different.
Up to this point I've never really seen the notorious Fox news channel only parts of it, then it happened, after a few years my apartment finally had cable, of course the first thing I looked for was the History Channel (I'd be lying if it was a news channel) then I went and looked the news channel, CNN (international) was confirmed and so was BBC, then saw it, Fox new channel, out of morbid curiosity I switched to that channel, lucky for me it was a slow news day it wasn't until a few days later that I was introduced to Sean, Anne and Bill, I watched these three with amusement, the same amusement most people get when they see a freak car accident. All it was was a bunch of angry highly opinionated white people who loves to speak in front of cameras, the scary part was when I found out that the majority of America loved these guys, how did I found out you ask? the simple fact that these people have stayed on air for that long and one of them has published a book that was bought and read by millions. I couldn't go to any of my classes that week due to excessive vomiting.
Then there was the State of the Union Address by none other than the 43rd POTUS. Personally I love hearing the Union address from any president, it's like listening to a person making multiple new years resolution, in fact I think all State of the Union Address needs to be done on the 1st of January. Anyway, it was hilarious seeing how one news channel reported just the major points made by the president and how will it effect the country in the future and the other praising and glorifying every single sentence in the speech, I'd let you decided which channels did what but it was clear that the media no longer reports news objectively.
more on this after I pull more words out of my ass.....
Much like almost everyone else I never found the news to be exciting, on television it was nothing but one or two people speaking monotonously with a video montage while on the papers it was nothing but a bunch of words with some pictures on it, it's no wonder that most people don't like following the news it's boring. It was not until junior high I find myself being drawn to these texts and pictures and not because they changed how it was presented, although it did help make the news more palatable, I was actually drawn to the news, I started to read more newspapers and magazines, particularly 'Time' and 'The Jakarta Post' (local newspapers gave me headaches) when I moved to Singapore to do my O-levels I was almost always the first person in the dormitory to wake up to read the morning papers before it was shredded to pieces by some ignorant kids who had no respect for other people who wants to read the papers. There I expanded my sources, I read the local Strait Times, Newsweek, I even read USA Today, Ok I admit they weren't the best news source bit it gave me different perspectives about the world and particularly about people, right then I had an idea what field of study I wanted to do.
Several years later I sat down in one of my lectures listening to my lecturers explaining about the media control and sociological effect of the media, coming from a place where media were practically state run it didn't come to me as a surprise that propaganda is prominent in ANY country, whether it was state "sponsored" or driven by a bunch of rich old bastards with an agenda. What caught me was the idea of smear campaign, before I became a university student I pretty much took what ever was on the news as fact, with a grain of salt, by the time I finished my 1st year I realized that it was more than just a grain, the salt came in by the truckload, there were so much salt in the news finding facts in the news was like looking for a needle in truckload of salt, there probably was a point where I thought "a cat was rescued by firefighters from a tree" meant something completely different.
Up to this point I've never really seen the notorious Fox news channel only parts of it, then it happened, after a few years my apartment finally had cable, of course the first thing I looked for was the History Channel (I'd be lying if it was a news channel) then I went and looked the news channel, CNN (international) was confirmed and so was BBC, then saw it, Fox new channel, out of morbid curiosity I switched to that channel, lucky for me it was a slow news day it wasn't until a few days later that I was introduced to Sean, Anne and Bill, I watched these three with amusement, the same amusement most people get when they see a freak car accident. All it was was a bunch of angry highly opinionated white people who loves to speak in front of cameras, the scary part was when I found out that the majority of America loved these guys, how did I found out you ask? the simple fact that these people have stayed on air for that long and one of them has published a book that was bought and read by millions. I couldn't go to any of my classes that week due to excessive vomiting.
Then there was the State of the Union Address by none other than the 43rd POTUS. Personally I love hearing the Union address from any president, it's like listening to a person making multiple new years resolution, in fact I think all State of the Union Address needs to be done on the 1st of January. Anyway, it was hilarious seeing how one news channel reported just the major points made by the president and how will it effect the country in the future and the other praising and glorifying every single sentence in the speech, I'd let you decided which channels did what but it was clear that the media no longer reports news objectively.
more on this after I pull more words out of my ass.....
Sunday, July 02, 2006
It's a bird, it's a plane it's.....
One of the best Superman movie ever!! as far as Superman movies go anyway
Before I say anything else I have to say that I was never a big fan of the comic book itself or Superman as a super hero character I'm more of a Batman person when it comes to DC characters, but still, to me Superman is THE iconic symbol for an American super hero image, heck he practically started the whole thing.
Moving right along. I do find somethings in it somewhat disappointing (Superman in Gotham? some cave-dwelling multibillionaire playboy is not going to like it very much) but the bulk of it is just like your good old Superman movies (not including Superman 4) when I first watched it way back when I was still in elementary school, on laser disc (I'm not THAT old) but with much better special effects.
In terms of the actors and actresses Brandon Routh fits very well into the Superman/Clark Kent role, Lois Lane was ok-ish, good but while pretty and played her role well she just didn't stand out that much, Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor on the other hand was....... Lex Luthor, or maybe I just like Spacey better than Hackman as Luthor. I just find it odd that Luthor was able to get out of jail since back in Superman 2 he was practically imprisoned in another dimension, like I said one of the few things that I find disappointing.
some personal points I need to make,
First, I'm just glad they decided not to make a movie about the Super "blue electric eel" man, that and they decided against casting Nicolas Cage as Superman.
Second, we all know that Supes is significantly stronger than every other human being but how strong is he supposed to be really? lifting planes and truck are one thing but uprooting a whole island?
Third and final point, how long does Superman's power supply last? if he stayed away from the earth's sun for 5 years wouldn't that mean his supply would be out by then?
Before I say anything else I have to say that I was never a big fan of the comic book itself or Superman as a super hero character I'm more of a Batman person when it comes to DC characters, but still, to me Superman is THE iconic symbol for an American super hero image, heck he practically started the whole thing.
Moving right along. I do find somethings in it somewhat disappointing (Superman in Gotham? some cave-dwelling multibillionaire playboy is not going to like it very much) but the bulk of it is just like your good old Superman movies (not including Superman 4) when I first watched it way back when I was still in elementary school, on laser disc (I'm not THAT old) but with much better special effects.
In terms of the actors and actresses Brandon Routh fits very well into the Superman/Clark Kent role, Lois Lane was ok-ish, good but while pretty and played her role well she just didn't stand out that much, Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor on the other hand was....... Lex Luthor, or maybe I just like Spacey better than Hackman as Luthor. I just find it odd that Luthor was able to get out of jail since back in Superman 2 he was practically imprisoned in another dimension, like I said one of the few things that I find disappointing.
some personal points I need to make,
First, I'm just glad they decided not to make a movie about the Super "blue electric eel" man, that and they decided against casting Nicolas Cage as Superman.
Second, we all know that Supes is significantly stronger than every other human being but how strong is he supposed to be really? lifting planes and truck are one thing but uprooting a whole island?
Third and final point, how long does Superman's power supply last? if he stayed away from the earth's sun for 5 years wouldn't that mean his supply would be out by then?
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